ATTENTION: Due to an overwhelming amount of spam memberships, we do not allow new registrations through the usual registration process except during the days leading up to a suicide pool. If registration is not available and you would still like to join our community, use the Contact Us form and let us know you would like to join.

REGISTRATION FOR THE 2019 U.S. OPEN SUICIDE POOL IS NOW CLOSED.

FACEBOOK CONNECT USERS: For more than a year we've been announcing that at some point we will no longer be using the option of Facebook Connect to sign in to our forum. That day has arrived. Facebook changes its requirements so often that we can no longer keep up with them. If you previously used Facebook Connect but took the time to set up a TalkAboutTennis (TAT) Password in your profile, you can use your Facebook User Name and TAT Password to log in. If you did not set up a TAT password, you will no longer be able to login to your account, you will have to set up a new account using the normal TAT registration process, which can only be done several days prior to a Suicide Pool. We certainly apologize for this, but if you have a complaint, direct it at Facebook for changing their requirements so often.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.

ponchi101

Bierfest in Albania is a nationwide holiday.
A small brewery called ELBAR sets up tents and tables and benches around the country and in all towns people sit down to wolf down lousy beer and eat unhealthy food. In Fier, Tirana, Gjirokaster and Durress, the people are getting ready to say goodbye to the warm days of summer and during the days from August 21st to the end of the month, debauchery Albanian style takes a hold of the nation.
In Berat the main street that I know so well is
...

Then there is always another side.
When you have a town where there are not movie theaters or discos or anything alike, entertainment has to come from inventiveness. I am at a restaurant once and I see a table where a family is enjoying dinner while playing cards. It surprises me that both younger children, not young but not yet teenagers, are playing with their parents as opposed to the expected American, Techno European mode, which would be glued to their smartphones.
I walk down
...

Albania is in Europe but not the Europe we know. Not only in time as stated previously, but there is a cultural issue that separates them. You could never mistake Albania for Germany or Scandinavia.
There are severe cultural differences in the country. For example, there is a disregard for the law that I recognize easily as I live in Latin America and the concept that the law applies to others but not one is not unknown to me. The man in the bus that collects the fare openly smokes as he
...

I walk the city and I see that as much as I like it, there are issues that are of concern. There are details that tell you so.
Examples abound. You are still allowed to smoke inside public places and smoking is very prevalent on the young. The men buy a beer and smoke a cigarette next to my table on a regular basis, slightly ruining the flavors. The young women are catching up and although they still do not smoke in the same proportion the younger and more affluent are heading on that direction.
...

In Albania, I am told, religions know how to get along.
Shqipëri is tiny and it is ancient so it is a place that has been invaded, pillaged, conquered, raided and demoted/promoted from region to country to fiefdom to Kingdom to district to Empire (part of one) to now a republic. So it is not hard to realize that religions here have had to live with each other for a long time. In ancient times, the Apollonians (the beautiful ones) constantly quarreled with the Vulcanians (those that followed
...